The mass exodus from California continues as socialist policies and a failed economy are destroying the Golden State.
But some of those fleeing the state have other, more personal reasons for leaving.
And former A-list Actor Adrian Grenier just explained why he left ‘shady’ Hollywood for his own farm in this red state.
Actor Adrian Grenier of Entourage recently revealed that he left Hollywood for a life in his own farming community in Texas.
A hedonistic lifestyle
Grenier said he left Hollywood after years of a “hedonistic” lifestyle.
The former Entourage star sat down with Jordan Peterson for a discussion about his time as a self-indulgent actor.
And Grenier said this was a time period that eventually led him astray.
Grenier explained to Peterson that from the start, he wasn’t too eager to reach a high level of fame early in his career.
“I could be a lot more famous than I am today, but I just I always rejected — there’s something that I just didn’t trust in Hollywood. I was always like, it seems shady, it seemed shady, and so I resisted,” he told Peterson.
The actor achieved amazing success very early in his career, landing starring roles in hit movies like Drive Me Crazy and The Devil Wears Prada.
Grenier said those starring roles allowed him to garner “a little bit of clout in Hollywood.”
But he says he mostly rejected his launch into stardom.
Grenier said he had been spending an extended amount of time in Mexico when his agent gave him an ultimatum.
Simply put, the agent told him he needed to return to Hollywood right away or find a new agent.
That warning convinced Grenier to head back to the U.S. and audition for the HBO show Entourage.
Art imitating life
This story was replicated in the hit television series and was just one of many ways in which Grenier’s real life was used as a basis for many episodes of Entourage.
“It was more fun to blur the lines, because you start to acquiesce to people’s wanting you to be the character,” the actor told Peterson.
Grenier also admitted that in real life his wife left him once because of his lifestyle.
“I really just wanted pleasure, I was hedonistic, I was seeking the next hit,” Grenier explained. “I was open and poly, and liberal, and I thought I was a good person. I really did.”
“She dumped me,” he said of his now-wife, Jordan Roemmele. “In no uncertain terms [she] said, ‘You are the worst.’ She gave me a list; she was thorough. She was nice enough to give me a list. … ‘Take a look at how you’re drinking, about how you’re using sex, take take a look at all these things, see ya, lose my number.’”
Grenier said he recalled feeling like there had been a “glitch in the matrix.”
“For a second I was like what, there was something off. How is it that this girl, she was young, here I am the the powerful, rich, famous person, who is justified in everything I’m doing because I also do charity, and she’s leaving me?”
“I could give her everything, access, we could fly, we do everything. Go around the world, anything. And she’s leaving me? That was weird, but I was like, ‘All right, I’ll find another girl, not a problem.’ But it stayed with me and because I loved her and respected her so much.”
Once again, a very similar scenario was the focus of the final season of Entourage.
In the eighth season, Grenier’s character, Vincent Chase, becomes enamored by a journalist who interviews him and writes an article harshly critical of his legendary sexual adventures and his failure to have any serious relationships.
Grenier’s character then goes to extraordinary lengths to prove to the journalist that he is actually a good person.
In the series finale the two leave to get married.
Grenier said in real life he spent a year and a half reconnecting with the future mother of his child.
The actor said he spent most of his time split between Hollywood and his native New York City but has now given up both lifestyles to live on his own land near Austin, Texas.
Grenier said he spent almost a year living in a 50-square-foot camper on a small piece of land and created a community garden.
“I was just digging in the soil and planting and digging and working, meditating, and cooking in an open fire. I grew a beard, and then the pandemic hit, and I was like ‘perfect,’ I’m already solo in isolation; it didn’t affect me at all.”
Once again, Grenier’s life was reflected in the movies.
In Goodbye World, the characters are forced to live off the grid in the countryside after a terror attack leaves society in the dark.
Grenier may have given up fame for farming, but he seems far happier now.